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Comment by cosmic_cheese | Hacker News Reader

An advantage of Bluesky over Twitter that’s valuable to a lot of people is the degree of control it gives. Algorithmic feeds are more precisely tunable so it’s easier to get them to show the things you want to see, starter packs make it easy to follow entire circles at once, and moderation tools are robust, which helps tamp down on spam, trolling, harassment, etc.

It feels more designed for meaningful interaction than it is engagement at all costs, which is probably why it’s common for people who've moved to have seen much higher numbers of substantiative replies to their posts despite having a fraction as many followers as they do on Twitter.

It may not catch on regardless, but I think it has the best shot of all the Twitter alternatives thus far.

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All these advantages are only due to the fact that it has less users and thus it is cheaper to run it and less need to monetize it.

Even if that’s true, it’s irrelevant from the user’s perspective. Regardless of the underlying reason, the result is a user experience that’s enough of an improvement that users feel motivated to migrate.

If Bluesky becomes dominant, it will likely eventually degrade too, at which point something will take its place. Such is the fate of social media apps. The only variable is how long the app can stave off that decay.

Can you explain how any of these are due to it having less users, or being cheaper to run?

>An advantage of Bluesky over Twitter that’s valuable to a lot of people is the degree of control it gives. Algorithmic feeds are more precisely tunable so it’s easier to get them to show the things you want to see, starter packs make it easy to follow entire circles at once, and moderation tools are robust, which helps tamp down on spam, trolling, harassment, etc.

Your statement appears completely illogical without a good deal of explanation connecting these concrete statements to yours.

Twitter algorithmic feeds are designed to promote engagement even if you don'like something. It is important because more engagement with various content, means more clicks, more reactions and so on.

You get something you like, you get something don't like, click bait, then begin to argue etc. It is basically like a flea market with ads floating around and retailers promoting their stuff. All for the engagement.

But BlueSky creates isolated tables - like in a cafe. Sure they have more than 5 chairs, but it does promote engagement and closer to weekly clubs.

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